The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors recently signed off on a 13-acre redevelopment in Willowbrook that includes mixed housing, a new park, and educational facilities.
The project is led by Charles R. Drew University, one of only four historically Black colleges in the country, and Culver City-based real estate developer Century Housing. It will repurpose an assemblage that includes the site of the former Lincoln Elementary School at 1667 East 118th Street, just north of the university’s main campus.
The project site consists of parcels owned by the Compton Unified School District and the Los Angeles Development Authority. The county Board of Supervisors also signed off on a 99-year ground lease between the university and the owners of the campus, according to a report in The Real Deal.
A press release from Century Housing says the project’s residential footprint at full buildout will consist of up to 254 affordable apartments, 250 apartments for student housing and 55 apartments for faculty and workforce housing. Century said homes will be allotted to seniors, families and individuals with special needs earning between 30% and 80% of the area median income.
The first and second phases of the project will deliver 54 senior homes and 50 affordable homes, respectively, across two four-story buildings. The first building will front the intersection of Compton Avenue and E 117th Place, extending toward 118th Street. The second phase of the project will front E 118th Street. A release from Century Housing says the latter phases will deliver approximately 150 affordable homes across three buildings.
While the residential portion of the project is slated to bring affordable housing to the neighborhood, the majority of the project site will make up the Charles R. Drew University Wellness Campus.
Century Housing said the project includes 121,000 square feet of office, lab and bioscience space, a gym and indoor swimming pool, several athletic fields, and a parking garage for up to 700 cars. The northeast section of the parcel fronting E 117th Street will be redeveloped into a parking deck, while the eastern side of the parcel will consist of an athletic field. A student housing building will be in the center of the parcel and will include several gardens, a promenade that bisects E 118th Street, and six other buildings.
The project has an estimated price tag of $435 million, according to a report in Los Angeles Business Journal.
The board of supervisors approved the plan for the campus two weeks before the university held a ribbon cutting ceremony for a new four-story, 60,000-square-foot facility. That project had an estimated price tag of over $50 million and will serve as a learning hub.
The LA Board of Supervisors has been trying to redevelop the parcels for several years. The project is part of the broader Willowbrook Transit Oriented District, which was adopted in 2017 and includes 312 acres around the Willowbrook/Rosa Parks Station. The plan calls for up to 1,952 residences, nearly 1 million square feet of commercial space, approximately 315,000 square feet of industrial space and approximately 1.3 million square feet of public space.
